credit : Mark Lloyd
The participating skippers today agreed by an overwhelming majority to support the request of the Hugo Boss Sailing Team.
The team announced the name of the temporary substitute skipper who will partner Andy Meiklejohn on board Hugo Boss from the start. His name is Wouter Verbraak.
This morning the regatta direction of the Barcelona World RACE has received and has passed directly to the jury the request of Hugo Boss Sailing Team for a temporary substitution of its skipper Alex Thomson who had a surgical intervention yesterday to remove his appendix.
This substitution would allow the boat Hugo Boss to start the race on Friday December 31st together with the rest of the fleet. The request included the permission for Alex Thomson, once he has received medical clearance, to board Hugo Boss and continue the race.
On the basis that there was no rule to which they could directly refer, as such a request is not directly covered by the Notice of Race, the International Jury referred the request to Regatta Organisation.
This Race Organisation decided to submit the request to the IMOCA Class for consultation, represented by all of the competing skippers. The skippers voted by an overwhelming majority to accept the request of the Hugo Boss team. In this way the British IMOCA Open 60 can make the start tomorrow December 31st with Andy Meiklejohn and a substitute for Alex Thomson.
From Barcelona World Race
